We’ve had a number of horses over the years. Alf, the thoroughbred chestunut, had very fine mane and tail hair. Nick, the fjord cross and uber brat, has very course thick mane and tail, just like the purebred fjords. Moka, the bay thoroughbred, has black mane and tail and although the hair is fine, it’s very thick.

So, did we groom them differently? No, not at all. Alf needed a little more care in grooming his mane and tail, but basically we treated them all the same.

Nick’s tail was actually the toughest to groom, being the thickest. My favorite product for grooming mane and tails is Feibing’s Satin Sheen. It doesn’t leave a sticky feeling like so many others do.

I start with the tail first. I spray the entire tail with Satin Sheen and then pick up the bottom of the tail and rub it against the top of the tail. I use the palm of my hands to rub it in from top to bottom. I then use a regular hair brush, with plastic bristles, spread widely apart.

I take the brush and start at the bottom of the tail. I take a small piece of the tail and lay the tail across my thigh, just above my knee. Starting at the bottom, brush a few inches at a time, until you can feel the tangles are out. Work your way up to the top.

Continue brushing the tail in this manner until you’ve brushed all the tangles out. Then take the entire tail and lay it across your knee and in the same manner, brush it all again, right up to the top.

Brushing in this manner reduces and prevents breakage, and leaves their tail looking full. I found brushing their tails was very theapeutic and was one of my favorite pasttimies.

Enjoy!

Andrea

I love spring. The budding trees, the profusion of flowers that seem to burst every day. The rich green grass. It’s such a wonderful feeling of renewal. But the shedding? Moka, my beautiful rescued thoroughbred, seems to shed overnight, with no brushing. I often wonder if she just leaves it in her blanket one night. And then there’s Nick – the brat. His sire was a fjord and his dam was quarter horse/arab. He’s a chunky guy, lovingly called “fatty boy” and looks like a quarter horse on steroids. He’s the ultimate in “big hair”. I should call him Mr. Bouffant. He’s a beautiful ivory buckskin and got his sires long furry coat – yuck. He looks so cute when he fuzzes up for the winter, but come spring – I could make a whole new horse with what he sheds. Bleah. He rolls and rolls and rolls, leaving white patches of hair all over the pasture. And even with the shedding blade, he leaves volumes of hair stuck to every part of me. Believe me, I’ve been mistaken for a sasquatch after brushing him! One huge tip for women, do NOT wear lipstick or lip balm to the barn in spring.. unless you want hairy lips. There’s nothing quite like having to pull horse hair out of your lipstick. I’ve tried everything to help my horse shed out, and the only thing I can tell you is… brushing and a shedding blade. Some people swear by baby oil, but my feeling is that it leaves a mess and you have to bathe your horse… so what is working? The baby oil or the fact that you have to bathe them? Undoubtedly the bathing is what helps them shed out, and if it’s cool, you don’t want to be bathing them. I’ve found the best method is using a rubber curry brush in a circular motion all over him first, then use the shedding blade. Oh yeah, and as for what to wear so you don’t wear the hair home? I found putting on overalls over my clothes keeps most of the hair off of me. I just leave the overalls at the barn, and I go home, relatively clean – or at least mostly hairless (going home “clean” from a barn has got to be a miracle – and an oxymoron!) Enjoy spring and the bursting of new growth – including “new hair”. Andrea

Did you ever wonder how parts of a horse were named? I mean, really, who would ever think of naming that funny triangular thing on the bottom of their hoof, a “frog”?

It’s not green, it doesn’t leap or sit on a lily pad. And as far as I know, it doesn’t croak. At least, I’ve never heard one do so – not from the bottom of the hoof anyway.

And ermines? On a horse? I think of luxurious fur when I think of an ermine. Something women used to wrap around their shoulders on a night out. It used to be the height of fashion to have an “ermine stole”.(Now, you’d be tarred and feathered).

So how did they end up calling those little black spots in white socks or stockings around the coronet band become “ermines”? As close as I can figure it, when they used to make ermine stoles or trim, they’d use the black tip of the ermine tails and intersperse it throughout the trim, etc, for contrast.

Can’t you just hear the horses? “Eeeew, your white socks are dirty! You have black spots in them!” “How crass, dahling – I have ermines!”

What about horsefeathers? We’ve all heard that term. I used to think, how silly, horses don’t have feathers. Imagine my surprise when I found out they did!

But who would think to call the long hair at their fetlocks “feathers”? They don’t flap their feet, and take off. Although, sometimes they do appear to “fly”, it’s not in the literal sense.

You have to wonder, who thinks these things up? So if I see a green horse croaking and leaping, wearing an ermine stole on each hoof and flapping it’s legs, I’ll then know why they were called frogs, ermines, and horsefeathers.

Andrea Chapman
copyright Sept 4/09